[B-Greek] Capital theta in John 1:18?

Daniel Buck bucksburg at yahoo.com
Wed Dec 16 10:16:27 EST 2009


John Owlett wrote:
>>In NA27, the first letter of John 1:18 is a capital theta.

IN UBS4, it is a lower case theta.

Why the difference?<<

Barry replied:

>A matter of editorial choice.  No such distinction would have been employed in the earliest manuscripts.<


I think John wanted to know *why* the editors made that choice. Since Barry has speculated on the format of the archetype, I guess I'm free to speculate on the editor's motives. I think they were trying to make a distinction between 'the' God of the first QEON in the verse, and 'a' god of the second QEOS.

But I jest. Nestle capitalized it, and he probably got it that way from Tischendorf. The distinction may be traceable all the way back to 2e for all I know. This is just one example of how a reading can be carried over from an exemplar without a further thought.

As far as the anarthrous structure is concerned, might it be due to a reluctance to begin a Gk sentence with TON?

Daniel Buck


      


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